A. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to systems for taking physical inventory and more particularly to an inventory taking system for automatically recollecting and processing information related to the inventory of a warehouse.
B. Description of the Related Art
The duty of taking inventory and processing all the related information on medium and big warehouses is a big challenge for the company mainly due to the big quantity of products stored therein and to the physical characteristics of the warehouses, in which the products are stored in high rise racks.
Although there have been developed electronic systems for controlling inventory information, said information rely on manually taking the inventory which is not always accurate, and sometimes the information generated by said systems do not accurately reflect the real existences and quantities of products in the warehouse, causing problems and delays in the delivery of products, and consequently, sometimes it is necessary to manually take the inventory to correct the system information.
In some manufacturing industries it is vital to the production processes to have the last accurate and real information about the number of thousands of pieces currently on inventory, which sometimes is very difficult and takes a long time, and therefore, the information rarely reflects the current inventory status.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a system able to provide immediate and current information about the inventory status without having to manually take the inventory, which takes a long time and is not always accurate.
In view of the above referred problems, applicants developed an automated system for physically take inventory and immediately provide accurate and current information about the inventory of products or items.
Applicant's system is able to quickly take the inventory of products stored in high rise racks and immediately provide the inventory information to an information system for immediate processing.
In order to achieve such processing velocity, applicant's system makes use of remote electronic identification means for each product, box, etc. and each storing cell of a correspondent rack, thus allowing the system to read great amounts of information at once.
Applicant's system comprises: at least one remote electronic identification means reading means; moving means for the inventory taking device; control means for controlling the components of the inventory taking device receiving information from the remote identification means and for sending said information to the electronic information and control system; and electronic information transmission means connected to the control means, having wireless information transmission means, receiving the information obtained by the control means and wireless sending said information to the electronic information and control system.
Thanks to applicant's system it is possible to have the last accurate information about the inventory of products or items, no matter how big or extended is the warehouse, thus avoiding delays in the production processes and losses of money.